National Statistics Online - Articles - Measuring productivity in the provision of public services
Articles Database
Measuring productivity in the provision of public services
Explains the meaning of productivity and, using examples drawn from education, health, social security, the prison and fire services and the police, proposes procedures for measuring it.
The ONS is planning to develop a measure of productivity in the provision of public services. Up to now, different methods have been used to measure productivity in the market and non-market sectors of the economy, which may have affected the quality and comparability of published productivity estimates.
The money value of output by market producers is adjusted to derive its equivalent at constant prices. Improvements to the quality of goods and services are normally taken into account by adjusting downwards the price indices used to deflate the money value of this output.
This approach did not prove possible for the non-market sector, which is composed mainly of government services, often provided free of charge at the point of consumption. Until recently, the practice - in the UK as in other countries - was to assume that productivity in producing government services was constant and that, over time, there was no change in the quality of the services produced.
The United Nations’ System of National Accounts and the European System of Accounts both encourage this measurement of non-market productivity where it is feasible. The United Kingdom is in the forefront of these developments. The productivity indicator being developed will measure the extent to which growth in the volume of output exceeds (or otherwise) growth in the volume of inputs. The aim is to publish indicators of productivity for some or all of the main functions of government in Economic Trends.
Download
